A song for Sydney, from the Boss

Grace

Cathie Coward/The Hamilton Spectator

Grace Mahler, 11, asked Bruce Springsteen to sing a special song for her friend Sydney who died unexpectedly this summer at a soccer tournament. Springsteen fullfilled her request singing Terry's Song - which he sang for only the second time ever in concert.

Sign

Amy Thorne/Special to The Hamilton Spectator

A colleague of Sydney's uncle took this photo and shared it with the Wood and Mahler families.

Sydney Wood

Photo courtesy the Wood family

Basketball was Sydney Wood's first love. The 11-year-old star died n August from a brain abnormality while at a soccer tournament in Virginia Beach.

At 11 years old, Grace Mahler was already a veteran of four Bruce Springsteen concerts. She had always sat in the reserved seating area with her parents, but this time Grace was determined to get a spot on the floor near the front of the stage.

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She wanted him to sing a song for her friend Sydney Wood, who had died suddenly in August from a brain abnormality. The two had played rep basketball together for the Blessed Sacrament Yellow Jackets. Sydney had excelled in every sport she tried. Her death came as a shock.

Grace, a Grade 6 student at St. Thérèse of Lisieux on the west Mountain, knew her Springsteen request was a long shot. The song she wanted him to sing was an obscure one — according to fan websites he had only sung it in concert once before. But she was sure The Boss would sing it again for her. All she had to do was get close enough so he could read her request sign.

So on Sunday afternoon, a few hours before Springsteen took the stage at Copps Coliseum she carefully made up her sign on a large sheet of green Bristol board. It read: “Terry’s Song, for my friend in Heaven, Sydney.”

“I knew that Sydney was there. She was with me in my heart, so all I had to do was keep my fingers crossed,” Grace said in an interview Wednesday.

In the vast Springsteen catalogue, Terry’s Song is about as rare as they come. A “hidden track” on the Magic CD, it isn’t even listed on the album cover. Terry’s Song is an added extra that comes out of the blue at the end of the record. Springsteen wrote it after Terry Magovern, his close friend and personal assistant for 23 years, died in 2007.

“Love is a power greater than death, just like the songs and stories told. And when she built you, brother, she broke the mould. That attitude’s a power stronger than death”

The lyrics had taken on a special meaning for Grace since Sydney’s death. “Love is a power greater than death.”

Grace showed up at the concert with her general admission floor ticket. She still had to make it through a lottery, however, to gain entrance to the special area near the stage known to fans as “the pit.” She was the 13th-last fan out of several hundred to make it in. It was a good omen, Grace thought. Sydney’s jersey number in soccer was 13.

The Grade 6 student was accompanied in the pit by her 15-year-old sister, Ella. Together they wiggled and wormed their way to the front. Fans around them were impressed with Grace’s tenacity and the rare nature of her request. One man hoisted her onto his shoulders so that Springsteen couldn’t miss the sign. It was green, the same colour as the bracelet people wear to support organ donations. Sydney’s organs had been donated, too.

Sure enough, Springsteen spotted the sign, took it from her hands and placed it with several others on stage. Three songs later, The Boss handed Grace his microphone to help him sing Waitin’ On A Sunny Day.

Still, there was no guarantee that Springsteen would sing her request. What if he couldn’t remember the words? Maybe he just gave her the microphone to make her feel better.

Not so. After Sunny Day, Springsteen paused to have a chat with the audience. He held up Grace’s sign and said, “I’m going to do this for my pal now, rarely requested, Terry’s Song. It’s for Sydney.”

The Boss rested the sign on his microphone stand so everybody could see it. He explained how he wrote the song as a tribute to his own close friend. He told a funny story about Terry, back in the old days when the E Street Band played the New Jersey club circuit.

Springsteen then pointed toward Grace out in the audience and said, “You requested this one tonight, this is for you and this is for your friend, also.”

It was only the second time Springsteen had ever sung it in concert. The last time was in Houston in 2008. The crowd of some 18,000 fans fell silent.

“You could hear a pin drop in that place,” said Mary Mahler, Grace’s mother who watched the entire scene unfold from the back of the pit. “It was a very special moment.”

After the show, as Mary was putting her tired daughter to bed, Grace looked up and said “Sydney is smiling tonight.”

The next morning, Sydney’s mother, Sue Wood, saw The Spectator’s review of the concert. She read how Springsteen had taken a rare request from an unknown audience member. Sue knew her daughter’s friend had planned to attend the show. It didn’t take long for her to figure out who had made that special request. She got teary-eyed. It had to be Grace.